Tag: Horses

Alec Dailey ran away from home at the height of the Great Depression to be a jockey, but he’s just too tall. Still, he manages to eke out a living as an exercise rider at Pimlico. Then, one day, the elves come to him and make him an offer: we give you a horse, and you ride in one of our races. Done! The horse, a beautiful black stallion, is everything Alec ever dreamed of in his own horse–except for the part where he turns out to the notorious (and recently missing) jockey, Sunny Jim, who got himself turned into a horse by the elves. (Eventually, they fall in love.)

(I’m trying out being a bit more informal in my book descriptions.)

It’s written in this sort of 1940s Walter Farley pastiche style, it has kind of an interesting fantasy element, and a few twists throughout. And–true to form–it has a weird sex scene. Well, it’s not that weird; one of the characters has erectile dysfunction. I realized the other day that not one of my published books has a “normal” sex scene in it. Hand on Heart features an asexual character; Manner of Death contains sex with an undead character (a vampire), so he’s all cold and also can’t maintain an erection (because no circulation!); Her Majesty’s Superman actually has a “normal” sex scene, but it’s kinda short and vague because Victorian.

I had a surprisingly hard time with the cover, and not just because I’m a sentient blob of ink. Unlike my other book covers, where finding a good stock image was kind of a problem, in this case I was actually paralyzed by a wealth of beautiful stock photography. People love photographing horses! But I liked this one because the horse was “active” (not just standing around looking beautiful) and the lensflare in the back made it look sort of magical. And this horse is certainly magical: he is, after all, a gift from the elves.